


Astraphobia

by VitaLupum



Category: Ylvis
Genre: Astraphobia, Gen, Non-shipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 09:15:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VitaLupum/pseuds/VitaLupum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>as·tra·pho·bi·a (n.) An abnormal fear of lightning and thunder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Astraphobia

Vegard jumped a little as he saw the flash of lightning, and sighed as the hotel room returned to its semi-dark state. He knew what was coming next…

_1, 2, 3, 4, 5…_

Thunder split the air, rolling like an enormous bass drum, and there was a crash from down the hallway.

Vegard’s room door was flung open, and Bård stood there, face white, blue eyes wide. For all the world, for one moment, he looked like he had as a child when thunderstorms had passed over; each freckle standing out against the pale skin as colour drained from him.

"Are you alright?" Vegard asked nonchalantly. Bård nodded frantically, face still white, and a second bolt of lightning illuminated him for a second, leaving him nothing more than frantic blue eyes in a skull-white face. "Not scared?"

"O-of c-c-cou-" He hadn’t even finished the sentence when the thunder boomed again, and all of a sudden Vegard was being crushed under the weight of a thirty-year-old man.

"J-Jesus!" he spluttered, and pushed Bård off of him in the most caring way he could manage. "Come on, Bård, it’s just thunder… What do you do when the kids get scared?"

“ _Shut up_ ,” Bård hissed, head now firmly under the pillows. Vegard sighed, and went back to reading his book by the light of the bedside lamp. Lightning crackled again, and the lamp went out.

"Shit," the elder Ylvisåker brother snapped, and Bård gave a whimper from under the pillow. "Power cut." There was a noise then, that made Vegard stop and look at his baby brother in confusion. Bård would never admit it, and Vegard would never be so cruel as to ask him to confirm it, but he could’ve sworn Bård had given a tiny, near-silent sob.

"Bård?" he said quietly, and there was no reply. What he could see of his brother - shoulders down - was trembling, very slightly, and as he laid a hand on him the younger man flinched, looking up at him. His face was streaked with tears, and Vegard sighed and reached out, pulling his younger brother towards him.

"Vegard?" Bård sniffled, and Vegard sighed, wrapping his arms around him. Bård immediately curled up around him, head into his neck, and Vegard was struck by an almost painful moment of nostalgia.

Bard had been five and he had been eight; they had been in their living room watching television, stuck inside due to the rain, when a roll of thunder had sent them both rushing to the window to gaze outside.

They had both expected a flash of lightning; what they had not expected was for the lightning to hit their aerial and for the television to blow up. Bård had been so scared he had run upstairs to hide under his bed, and had refused to come out for two hours; eventually Vegard had had to climb underneath it and coax him out. Bård had never quite gotten over it; even when Bjarte came along, it was quite common during a thunderstorm to find the youngest Ylvisåker brother stroking the middle child’s hair as he sat under a table whimpering. But that first time it’d been Vegard lying under the bed, Bård curled up in his arms whimpering like a kicked puppy.

Who would’ve thought it would’ve been the same over twenty-five years later?

Bård had stopped sobbing now, although Vegard’s shirt felt a little damp around the shoulder area; and as the thunder rolled one final time Vegard felt his brother flinch. He would fall asleep now, like he always did, tired out from his own irrational terror, and Vegard waited until he heard his brother snore before he untangled himself gently and covered him over. Then, of course, he took out his phone and snapped a picture of Bård curled up with a pillow over his head. For Twitter, of course.

Well, he couldn’t be expected to be a  _perfect_  big brother, now, could he?


End file.
